With Pacquiao being brutally knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez, a potential megafight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. lost a ton of luster. Fertitta is correct about that. But those hashtagged matchups following his statement have yet to accumulate and the UFC could end up being guilty of the very thing its boss is jabbing boxing with.

Not only have we not seen Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva, neither seem imminent.

UFC president Dana White was so sure a superfight between middleweight champion Silva and welterweight champ St-Pierre was going to happen, he had May targeted as a timeframe. Silva wanted it; St-Pierre wasn’t dead set against it. A few dollars and concessions thrown around and a bout agreement would be signed within a matter of weeks.

Or so we all thought.

Last week, White said St-Pierre would “probably” defend his title against Nick Diaz next. It looks like that will now come in March. Even though Diaz is coming off a loss and a nearly year-long marijuana suspension, GSP called in a favor. Diaz, his foul-mouthed rival from Stockton, Calif., was who he wanted in the cage. And apparently that’s who he’s going to get.

That’s one Fertitta hashtag that won’t happen any time soon. And let’s not forget Silva is 38 years old – never mind that he wants a new 10-fight deal with the UFC.

Now, St-Pierre might end up facing Silva if he beats Diaz and there also remains the possibility of Silva vs. Jones, which would be the MMA equivalent of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather – they are the two best fighters in the world right now.

You can’t blast boxing if you don’t produce that fight before Silva retires. That’s the No. 1 fight on just about every fans’ wish list.

Initially, Jones and Silva were both adamant they would never fight each other. It isn’t that way any more. Silva is on an extended vacation from the cage and Jones will meet longtime Silva rival Chael Sonnen in April. That means a Silva-Jones battle could happen as soon as late summer or early fall 2013. St-Pierre also could be in play at that time.

“Everything is a possibility,” Jones told MMAFighting.com this week. “I really can’t count too much out. I do believe that we’re put on this earth to think big and dream big, and not limit ourselves. And fighting Anderson would be a definite testament of my faith and my warrior experience, and things like that. So who knows what will happen in the future.”

Jones said he won’t fight anyone until “someone comes and challenges me,” which is a big step back from he’ll never fight Silva. I doubt Silva would make any formal challenge to Jones and why would he? He’s the best MMA fighter of all time. But the UFC has enough money – and will make enough money on the megafight – to ensure it happens.

They have to or Fertitta’s tweet will be picked apart forever. The iron is hot now, UFC.

Sky not falling: For all those that live and die with MMA ratings numbers, Saturday’s UFC on FOX 5 was a significant success. The combination of a stacked card, commercials during NFL and college football games and not going up against the Olympics helped draw 4.4 million viewers, an 83 percent increase over August’s event, FOX announced.

The lightweight title fight between champion Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz blew up with 5.7 million viewers, making it one of the top 10 most watched televised MMA fights of all time. The overall ratings were third among men 18 to 24 years old for the week and fourth for men 18 to 49.

“We just killed it,” White told Yahoo!. “We killed it in every demo. There are always going to be older people home watching TV on a Saturday night, but the advertisers are trying to reach that demo and we just dominated it. That was a huge night for us.”

The total numbers are not as good as last November’s debut, which was a heavyweight title fight between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez. That averaged 5.7 million viewers. January’s card, with a main event of Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis did 4.7 million. The cards in June and August both did 2.4 million viewers with lackluster fights.

Bellator featherweight tourney final on hold: Rad Martinez wasn’t able to fight Shahbulat Shamhalaev on Friday night in Bellator’s season seven featherweight tournament final due to food poisoning and now that fight will be moved back to season eight.

Martinez is the primary caregiver for his father, who was rendered a paraplegic in a 1991 car crash. He wasn’t able to fight this Friday because of those obligations.

“Rad is saddled with responsibilities that are admirable,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said on a conference call Tuesday. “None of us can probably understand the depth and the level of what he’s got to deal with. Post-fight, I talked to Rad and got he and his brother on the phone. We just sat down and talked for a while. Literally, Rad is not in a position to be able to fight – not because he’s not ready, not because he’s not in incredible shape, not because he didn’t prepare but simply because he’s got to take care of his dad.”

Quick jabs: A Rory MacDonald–Carlos Condit rematch is being targeted for Montreal’s UFC 158 in March – the possible co-main event of St-Pierre vs. Diaz. Not a bad card shaping up there. … Set your DVRs correctly this weekend. UFC on FX from Australia airs Friday night at 9 p.m. and “The Ultimate Fighter” finale Saturday will also be on at 9 p.m. on FX. … Just 19 months after a UFC featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo, Mark Hominick retired this week. He was never the same after the sudden death of his trainer Shawn Tompkins last year. … Bellator closes out its seventh season Friday (8 p.m.) – its last on MTV2 – with two tournament finals. Richard Hale and Alexander Volkov compete for the vacated heavyweight title and Marcin Held and Dave Jansen fight in the lightweight tourney final. There’s also a fun women’s fight between Felice Herrig and Patricia Vidonic.